The Spoils of War
by Mihkail
Summary: A Horde raid on Teldrassil, centered around a young night elf druid and a particularly vicious undead rogue. Rated M for rape. Written in first-person (female).


((Since I've seen so many people say this, here goes: I do not own World of Warcraft. It...blongs to Blizzard...or...something. Yeah.))

((ENJOY! =) ))

It was a beautiful morning as usual. The sun hung low in the sky, blotted almost entirely from view by the numerous ancient trees that protected my sacred home. Only brief and scattered flashes of vibrant turqouise peppered through the dense, shuddering leaves high above, harassed by a cool breeze. By this hour, the city of Stormwind would already be bright and bustling with activity, but not here. Here, many of my people would be winding down, if not already snoozing the day away.

Don't misunderstand-we, or at least I, loved the sun. It brought life and color to all things. It made the world go 'round. But the night...well, it's simply what was natural to us. The tranquility, mystery and potential for adventure was heightened at night. We were made for the night. The suffocating darkness that loomed in like an relentless fog after each day provided a home away from home, regardless of the locations our travels lead us.

As for my travels, I was taking a much-needed break from them. I had spent the last few weeks aiding the outpost of Auberdine in Darkshore. I loved my work...and I loved knowing everything I did was appreciated. Not only by my people, but by nature itself. As a druid, it was impossible for me to bypass any land or creature that was in need of assistance or cleansing. Everyone needs some time off to relax and recollect oneself, however. I wouldn't be home for very long, but it would be long enough.

A quiet sigh drained from my lips as I shed my last piece of leather armor onto a mossy boulder. The serene surface of the pond rippled in protest as I stepped carefully down from the bank. This was one of my favorite places to visit when home. Secluded and relatively safe, some winding distance into the hills. It was some place far southwest of Dolanaar. It was a rare occasion for me to stumble upon another face exploring this area. A trustworthy enough niche to strip down and relax in.

The water was a little chilly, but a slightly less than appeasing temperature wasn't going to deter me from this. I would rather be a little cold than too hot, honestly. The first hint of goosebumps dotted my thighs as I sank deeper, moving slowly and gracefully-the only way I knew how. Small clouds of soft, slimy earth billowed up through the otherwise clear water with each step. Everything was...perfect. Well, as close to perfect as it could get for the time being.

Then, with a deep inhale, I suddenly fell like dead weight. Swallowed whole by the pond, the sudden cold shock enveloped every inch of ghostly white, with vague tints of blue, flesh. A rich, deep expanse of midnight blue locks fanned out around me, shrouding my face and elongated ears, and suspended in the silence of the new realm I had entered. Little sound could be detected down here, but it was of no worry to me. This was my home, after all. Enemies were few and far between, and as for the wildlife...no beast could match me. Not here. I had outgrown this place. I could walk-or bathe-freely.

Therefore, it was of no surprise that the first, shrill scream in the distance, followed by enraged and terrified shouts, never reached me. Even if I hadn't been sinking slowly, deeper and farther into the center of the pond, I was too far away from the city or any towns. I had found my center-my peace-and nothing was going to rouse me from it.

I don't know how long I was down there. I didn't need to seek shelter in my aquatic form to be able to hold my breath for a long time. I was great at any challenge nature threw at me. Adapting came easily for me. It was long enough for me to have grown accustomed to the chill, though. Any trace of goosebumps had vanished, and I had let my eyes fall shut. The only factor keeping me from dozing off was the unfortunate need for air...but that was a small inconvenience.

Gravity took its time dragging me to the floor of the pond, but eventually I felt it meet my heels, and I collapsed in on myself like an accordion, sitting cross-legged. Every once in a while something soft would brush against my back or nudge me. Fish, no doubt, and occasionally a turtle or frog. Curious and friendly little buggers. The creatures in the lakes and streams closer to the towns were a little more skittish, as they had learned the ways of fishermen by now, but not up here. Everything was a more wild, overgrown and fearless.

A gentle smile tugged at the corners of my mouth, and my eyelids fluttered open. The traditional, glinting silver orbs softly lit the dim waters surrounding me. I could faintly make out the shapes and movements of the animals claiming this place as their home, and the swaying freshwater plants. The longer I watched, the more illuminated everything became. With a night elf came night vision, to put it simply. Even at the bottom of a pond beneath a secured canopy of trees in the early morning, I could see well enough.

But it was time to breathe.

Another sudden lurch sent me springing from the bottom of the pond, the loose earth exploding up around me with the quick movement. Gliding towards the surface with the speed and ease of a hawk gliding high through the sky, a few bubbles would bring attention to the center of the pond at first...followed soon by the eruption of blue hair whipping up into view and cascading in a half-circle to smack down across my back.

Taking my first deep breath, I wiped any remaining, stubborn ribbons of hair from my face and smoothed it back over my head between my ears. Somewhere in the branches high above me, the small fluttering birds lost their voices. Startled, I assumed, but the loud smack of my hair...I paid no attention.

I should have.

A druid, especially, should never lose focus on the environment around them...but I did.

Another swift movement and I arched backwards, letting the fresh air in my lungs support me on the surface of the pond as I floated on my back. The air, of course, felt much colder now, and the goosebumps made their next appearance dotting across my chest and down the slope of my abdomen. I knew somewhere behind me I'd find shallow water, and I kicked carefully to propel myself into a steady pace towards it, though mindful not to splash too much.

A long, peaceful moment passed before the silky underwater earth greeted me once again, along with some mossy pebbles. As it slipped up against my back like a cool sheet, I bent my elbows into the mud and propped myself up to gaze out through the trees and downward sloping hills that I knew would lead me back to civilization.

It was then that reality gave me its first slap across the face.

In the distance, looming grey clouds drifted vertically into the air. Fire. And not just one. The longer I stared, with eyes widening in confusion, the more I took in. One, two...three. At least three separate, ominous clouds were marring my beautiful home, that I could see. But how could this be...?

And then the first scream assaulted my ears, quickly to be followed by more and more. They were difficult to hear, but they were there. An icy grip slithered its way up my spine, and I rolled over onto my stomach, ready to leap from the comforting bank and snatch at my armor. I hadn't the slightest clue what was happening, but whatever it was, it was big. I had I get down there, and fast.

That's when reality gave me its second, and most brutal slap.

I hadn't even managed to push myself from the earth before I saw him. On the very boulder that presented all of my armor, undergarments, and staff, he was perched-no...crouched, much like a predator ready to strike. Attire hued in nothing but black, with a concealing hood and a face mask, the only strip of identifying flesh visible on this creature was his eyes, rising just above the beginning of fabric stretched across his nose. The eyes of an undead. A gaze as vicious and confident as the glinting twin daggers he gripped tightly in his gloved hands bore into me. And those daggers alone, as my eyes twitched to his sides to examine them, provided painfully stark proof that this creature grossly outranked me in skill. Their design alone gave it away-intricate, unique, exotic...and drenched in fresh blood. Without a doubt, they had to be laced in poison as well. But the blood didn't end there, I quickly noticed. As I took him in, seized by a shock a thousand times more paralyzing than any cold water could be, I beheld the damp stains splattered all over his armor.

The blood of my people.

The horrible realization hit me at once... This was a raid.

Never in a million years would I have believed the collective monsters that called themselves the Horde would find the balls, and the means, to come here. We were too isolated and well protected. We-... This was impossible... This couldn't be happening... How?

I couldn't move. Never in my life had I felt fear and dread this intense. Instinctively, I knew that even if I had been dressed and prepared, I didn't stand a chance against him. And with each ticking second, my hands and knees cemented more and more stiffly into the soft mud. Any move I made...any attack, he would dodge or parry...and he could probably do it with his eyes closed. I just knew. I could distinctly feel the pulse in my neck, beating frantically as the adrenaline surged through my bloodstream. I'm sure my chest, as bare and vulnerable as it was, looked as if it was about to explode. A sinking, nauseating feeling corrupted my stomach, and the goosebumps multiplied-but no longer from the temperature.

I visibly tensed as he made his first move since I had laid eyes on him. Worn leather boots tread silently down the boulder, purposely kicking aside the armor that I had laid there. Everything he did was without sound, as though he was in a permanent, natural stealth. He stepped towards me...but slowly. Too slowly. It only mounted the shock that I couldn't break myself from. I could hear my own voice screaming at me to run, to do something, anything, but I was as still as a marble statue. The only movement came from the water dripping from my nose, my chin, my hair...and the pounding heartbeat.

One step, two steps, then three...as sluggishly as he was closing the distance between us, he was coming too fast...and he knew. He knew exactly the affect he had on me, and he was relishing in it. How many had he savagely slain down there? How many innocent men, women, and children fell limp on his blades? What number was I going to be?

It couldn't end this way. This couldn't happen. This wasn't right... But no matter how many times I blinked, he was still there when my eyes reopened. This wasn't a dream.

I was going to die here, naked an alone, at this hands of this rotting fiend.

My mouth opened and I made a small squeak of a sound as he stalked close enough for the scent of blood to overwhelm me. Humiliating as my situation was, the tables wouldn't turn. I was at a complete disadvantage, and now...I felt at any second I would let my dignity shatter and burst into tears. I couldn't let that happen. Whatever torture he might put me through, whatever fear I felt...I couldn't let him see a tear. It was something-the only thing-I likely had a smidge of control over.

A dizziness swirled around my head, and I felt myself begin to shake. His gaze never strayed from mine, and his expression was unreadable, his thoughts impossible to decipher. But as he crossed the invisible halfway mark that separated us, my limbs sprang to life of their own accord. I didn't remember willing them to move. They simply reanimated themselves. Before I could think twice, I had bolted to the left, mud and water splashing into the air behind me. It didn't even register that he could sprint if he wanted to. There really was nothing I could do to best him. My only hope of survival would be for a sentinel of the city to spontaneously show up to save the day.

There was no need for him to sprint, however. I didn't even get a chance to reach the grass before the steely, heatless gloved hands gripped me be the arms. A panicked shriek sounded from my throat as if I had been stabbed...because, to be honest, it's what I was expecting. The hands that met me fiercely gained control as I tried to thrash away, and sternly yanked me back against his chest from behind. I hadn't covered any ground, but my chest was heaving as I panted, entirely too aware of the rough material-sticky with blood-scratching along my bare skin.

My panic, to my dismay, skyrocketed when I suddenly realized that not only was I without armor, but I was naked. There was absolutely nothing covering me. Of course moments earlier I knew I was lacking clothing, but it hadn't really sunken in until I physically felt him against my skin. It awoke a brand new taste of terror.

I opened my mouth to scream again. Dignity be damned! Maybe someone would hear me at least! But the second my lips parted they were muffled by his hand.

Wriggling against him, doing anything I could to pry free, in turn only quickly exhausted me. And he let me try my hardest...it was probably his goal to let me tire myself out-let me do all the work. I couldn't for the life of me understand why the pain wasn't coming, though. His daggers had been sheathed.

As these thoughts sparked through me, a damp breath graced my ear, dimmed slightly by the cloth concealing his mouth. It was enough to cause me to freeze all over again. The terror twisting around in my chest was only strengthening, fueled by the suspense and my inability to comprehend him...his actions...and lack thereof.

A deep, gutteral voice vibrated through me as he pressed close. I couldn't decipher his language. All I heard were harsh, jagged tones that made my skin crawl. What I couldn't understand from his voice, however, he made up for with his hands. With one bony hand still holding my lips captive, the other snaked its way from my arm to my hip, and spread slowly across my belly. I couldn't calm my breathing, and the tremors began rattling through me again. He lingered there against me for a brief time, soaking me in, before stripping himself of the gloves and tucking them somewhere beneath the black curtain of cloak that draped around him. I could see them now...a pale hue close to my own, and partially decayed. Sharp nails protruded more like the claws of an animal from his fingertips, and when he touched me again, I shivered violently.

Retreating from my lips, his hand encircled my throat loosely. The other boldly ghosted its way up my belly, and cupped my breast. Fingertips fanned gently across the swell to encompass it, gliding over the already hardened nub. My knees grew weak at this sensation. All I wanted to do was fall to the ground and curl up into a ball. Scream at him to leave me alone. He couldn't just kill me? He had to torment me like this as well? But what else could one expect from a soldier of the Horde...

An uncontrollable, fearful gasp answered him as he kneaded my breast, fingers scissoring together to trap my nipple between them and rub. I couldn't see his face, and even if I had turned to look, he would have still been masked in black...but I knew he was grinning sadistically. I could feel it.

If he hadn't been holding onto me, I would have fallen like a pile of bricks. I couldn't stand this. Being near him alone was too much, but now he was touching me like this. I had no power over anything, not even my own body...and there was no escaping.

He shifted again, this time reaching for the mask that concealed him, and pulled it down. His breath flooded into my ear then, and I was suddenly aware of the teeth that rested so close to me.

I had heard tales of the undead feasting on the corpses of their fallen victims in battle. Luckily, I had yet to witness it with my own eyes, but now... What if they didn't just eat the dead? What if... Would they ever sink in to a living body? What if... Would he eat me alive?

As if he had been reading my thoughts, I felt something cool and slippery glide up the side of my neck and along the length of my ear, soon followed by a sharp clamp as he caught the thin flesh between his teeth. My knees buckled, and his grip quickly tightened to keep me from slipping through his arms and falling to the ground. A dark and dangerous chuckle bubbled from his throat, right into my ear, and the hand that was holding my breast squeezed a little more roughly this time.

I made another embarrassing and fearful noise, pulse pounding like thunder in my skull. "Elune, please...! Just let me go!" My voice was weak and shaky, without a trace of confidence. I heard him murmur something indistinguishable, and found the courage yet again to try and flee from him. Despite his iron grip on me, I lunged forward, and to my surprise, one of his hands gave way. The other, however, merely swung me around him in a half circle by my wrist, and flung me away. I stumbled and tripped, crashing to the earth on my side with anything but grace. I had fallen back onto the bank of the pond, with an inch or so of water standing around me. His shadowy figure loomed over me in an instant, and I crawled backwards in vain to escape him. He descended onto me with the swiftness of a lion pouncing on its squirming prey, and I felt his breathe this time waft over my face. I had a clear portrait of him then, as his mask hung down below his chin. The flesh of his face wasn't as decayed as I imagined it to be. He looked very much like a man still, and his eyes entranced me.

The thought of screaming seemed pointless at this rate, even as those unnaturally cool digits of his tucked under and slipped unexpectedly up the back of my thigh, raising my leg slightly. I wasn't ready for that, and my mouth hung open and mute as I stared into his eyes in silent panic.

"Please don't..." I managed to choke in a whisper, and in response, he leaned too closely into my face, as if he would kiss me, and simply hissed a, "Shhhh..."

He was smiling cruelly, uninvited hand trailing further and further up my leg, and then gliding back down again to catch under my knee and pull my legs further apart. I couldn't see what he was doing. I couldn't break away from his eyes. They were hypnotizing. But I could feel his touch all too clearly. Every detail. And when his fingers departed again, only to resurface between my thighs, I twitched involuntarily. He slipped between my lips, delicately tickling over my hidden, fleshy button. Instinctively, my legs snapped closed, but he pried them open again without effort, and repositioned his legs between them so I couldn't shield myself.

The first sign of tears welled up under my silver eyes, and a bright flush of pink washed across my cheeks, down my neck and chest. "N-no...Elune, I'll do anything...plea-" and he silenced me with his tongue, darting it across my lower lip, and then suckling it into his. His fingers only delved deeper, caressing between my folds up and down, and rubbing circles against my most sensitive spot. I felt his teeth clench into me again, and I snapped my lids shut in fear as two tears streaked without sound from the corners of my eyes. He never broke skin...but within the midst of this threat, two of his fingers plunged deep inside me without warning.

I inhaled sharply, lips quiveing as he laid claim to them...both of them, and writhed helplessly against him as he pumped in and out, slow as always. Reveling in the moment...reveling in his control.

To my horror, I felt an unwanted heat rising within me. I wasn't a virgin, but I was far from promiscuous. The touch of anyone, really, was uncommon for me. Most of my time traveling was spent in my feline form, sprinting through the trees and bushes, as free as the wind. I had experienced nothing like this before. To be handled in such a way was unbarable and degrading, but to not even possess my own restraint... I couldn't let this happen...but I couldn't stop it. My body was incapable of lying. And If I already sensed it, surely it wouldn't be long before he did...

As if the cards couldn't stack any higher against me.

Curling my knees back, I tried to squeeze them beneath his chest and shove him off me, only to hear his chuckle again in my face as he continued to suck my bottom lip. He was as unmoving as stone. I ripped my head to the side then, tearing my lip from him, and used every once of strength and stamina I had left to push him away. As predicted...I got absolutely nowhere. I only felt my muscles begin to cramp against the strain, and never once did his fingers slip out of me. With my cheek pinned to the mud in defiance, he lowered his mouth to my neck and planted a trail of kisses and nips all over me. My arms and legs fell limp again, completely drained, and I attempted to suppress a sob. It was utterly hopeless.

Picking up their pace, his fingers curled slightly, grinding against a hidden sweet spot deep inside me that I was unaware of, and a rebellious moan found a way to blurt from my mouth, against my will. The moisture that was accumulating was undeniable now. He had to notice. It was probably the reason he was now grinning into my neck as he suckled red welts down to my collarbone.

Suddenly, he pulled free, bringing his hand up and displaying it before me, forcing me to watch as he licked them clean. I shuddered involuntarily, failing to notice as he strayed to unbuckle the strap to the front of his waist. It was only when I heard a soft snap and clink of metal as it parted loose did a rekindled fire of determination awaken within me.

"NO!" I shrieked at him, as if I hadn't at all expected it to come this far...how silly could I be? I swiped at his face, trying to get a hold of anything-rip his hair out, gouge an eye-whatever I could reach. Jerking away from me, he caught me by the wrists and promptly slammed them into the mud above my head. I shouted and cursed like a banshee, thrashing as he stradled me and held me in place. Keeping a firm, shackle-like grip onto my wrists with one hand, the other returned to his waist without pause and finished unbuttoning all the restraints. All the while, a ferocious and entertained grin was plastered on his face, haunting me with the reassurance of what was to come.

To be honest, I had assumed the undead were completely...well, rotten. If I was ever going to be raped, an undead would be the last race I would have expected to attack me...but oh was he proving me wrong...

I could hear the friction of leather as he tugged his pants down, and once again, I snapped my eyes shut. I couldn't bare to watch him. The blind determination and rage was all too quickly melting back into a purposeless terror, and the tears poured shamefully down my face.

I felt him moving, repositioning himself, and then something hard pressed against my thigh. Whimpering and panting as I kept on struggling to break my bond, he impaled me ruthlessly. Sheathing himself in me as far as he could go...and I cried out in shock. It didn't exactly hurt, but it was uncomfortable at first. I wasn't used to it, and I definitely wasn't expecting or wanting it...despite any dampness that implied otherwise.

At first, he didn't move at all. He froze inside of me, and after a moment of silence, I heard a deep, feral groan leave him as he exhaled. With one hand still trapping both of my wrists, he used the other to seize my leg and hike it up to hook over his shoulder, and managed to plunge even further into my clenching core. I cried out again, this time from a brief stab of pain, and felt myself give way to trembles.

His breathing tripped into a more audible, quickened pace as he began to thrust...each cool breath dripping with lust. His hips locked tightly against mine, grinding into me deeper than I thought was possible. He wasn't as gentle with his hips as he was with his hands, but it didn't seem like he was trying to hurt me, either. He was simply...taking what he wanted.

As soon as he felt my struggling cease, his hand released my wrists and calloused fingers raked up the side of my waist and to my breast. He cupped it again, holding it firmly as he ravaged me, with his face smothered into the slope of my neck. My lips sealed shut, trying to stifle any noise I was making, until a moan broke free when he found a way to grind against that buried sweet spot of mine. I couldn't bare the shame that was overcoming me, but he knew exactly where to touch...where to hit...and he was using it with the accuracy I imagined he used his daggers. I was splayed open...every part of me he had access to, inside and out, and he played me like an instrument.

The pink flush betraying my face deepened, and I gasped as he pinched my nipple into a hardened mound, and brushed his palm over it. The pleasure was mounting faster than I had anticipated, and it horrified me to realize that he might actually take control of me in yet another way...when I thought it couldn't get any worse. As soon as he had discovered the angle that brought a sound to my lips, he aimed himself there again and again with each relentless, slick pump. His hips and inner thighs were quickly smeared with moisture...I felt it each time he ground into me.

I couldn't let him bring me to the edge. The minimal pride and honor that was left within me wouldn't allow it. "Anything... I'll...do anything... Please... Not this..." I huffed desperately between pants.

His lips rubbed along my neck as he lifted his head, and caressed them against my ear as he spoke in a familiar language that I was quite taken-aback to hear. "You will sing for me, little elf." He whispered in that same hissing, rough voice of his, but in flawless Darnassian. I went rigid. How could he speak my language-and so well? I knew I was dealing with a being far more experienced than I, in more ways than one, but to hear him use my native tongue brought me to my wits end. I was at a loss for words.

But I knew exactly what he meant... He wasn't letting me go.

He bucked roughly, sending a sharp, electric jolt through my pelvis, and I yelped. His lips spread into another sinister, satisfied grin, and then he let loose a long, drawn out groan, tickling my ear.

Gradually, my muscles went slack, releasing any fight they had left, and I laid there in defeat. "Good girl..." His snake-like voice assaulted me, and his hand slipped from my breast to snatch up my other leg, and anchor it around his waist while he held onto the other arching over his shoulder. I couldn't distract myself from his throbbing inside of me, it was too intense...or perhaps that was my own. A heat was rising between my legs, shuddering like a thousand excited butterflies with his thrusts, and I whimpered as he rode me.

A shower of goosebumps reemerged over my thighs, up my belly and chest, and my nipples tightened into stiff points that rubbed into him. There was no hiding the arousal, it betrayed me time and time again, and he loved it. He wasn't just carelessly using me, though I wish he was...he was listening to me, feeling me, silently noting each reaction I gave him, and twisting it to his advantage to bring me higher and higher to my breaking point. He was _making_ me get off, and he did it so well.

He slammed into me and rotated his hips, breaking away from my ear and staring down into my eyes as my thighs clenched around him. I bit my lip, hoping the pain would drown out the pang of pleasure that was pulsing all over me, but it was no use. Another violent jolt, and he invaded me again, pressing into an invisible switch that sent my head in a whirl. "Sing..." He commanded, and I shut my eyes to escape his glare. Another pounding in the same spot, and he pressed deeper, rubbing into it with expert precision, and I burst with a loud groan.

I heard him chuckle, but it seemed a little distant this time. The buzzing sexual energy encased me, wearing me thin, waiting for me to surrender. All I knew was what I felt-him. All over me, inside me, claiming me.

Another rough, dominating thrust, another twist of his hips...and I lost it. A powerful surge like nothing I'd ever felt before ripped through me. Back arching, my eyes rolled back into my head and fluttered, and I clamped down, contracting around him like a starving serpent wrapping around its prey. And I screamed. It didn't sound like me, though...it was something less fearful, less shocked...it was laced with lust, compliance...it was...indescribable.

The next sudden shout came from him as I squeezed, and he ignited into a frenzy. I had stopped resisting him some time ago, but his hands flew to my mine, clenching them and pressing them into the mud. His teeth snapped down into my neck, and I felt the skin rupture. I screamed again, and could hear him growling into my throat as he held onto me. He rocked into me again, slamming as deep as he could and causing me to slide up a through the mud, and released.

He laid there on top of me for a minute or two, catching his breath, and the sweat glistening all over us cooled our heated-well, my heated-flesh. My high was fading, and reality came all too quickly, crashing down around me.

He was going to kill me now...

I was motionless, hoping somehow, maybe, he would forget about me...just stand up and go away...and then I would be able to look out across the rolling hills below, and see that the smoke stacks had been extinguished. That the screams had faded. And any Horde that remained down there, was either dead or dying.

Well... One wish came true.

He lifted himself from me, securing his pants around his waist, and stared down at me with that unmoving savageness in his eyes. Never once did he glance away, even as he straightened his armor, tied the mask over his face, and slid the gloves back over his hands.

The screams were still ringing through the air, only they seemed to be closer this time, and I took a chance to glance out over the horizon and discover that the smoke stacks had only multiplied.

"Hurry... You'll miss the show." Another cruel sentence spoken in my language, and I looked back up at him, mute.

Only a second of silence passed between us, before he spun on his heels and simply vanished into thin air, as if he'd never been there.

Alone...the echoing screams were haunting, and scattered all over. Faintly, clashes of metal and roars of rage founds its way to me from somewhere close by. The chaos of battle was spilling into every crevice of my home. New smoke stacks ascended through the trees.

If I left, and ventured into the open, I would be slaughtered. There was no question. But I couldn't stay here. What would become of me then? Someone would find me. Hell, HE had found me. I'd die a coward. I'd die in vain. I had to at least try to defend my land. I had to try to regain the dignity I had let him rip from me.

With that, I struggled weakly to my feet, feeling battered and bruised, and stumbled towards the armor that lay in a heap on the ground a few feet away.

9


End file.
